Curriculum goals

The purpose of the WHY WAIT? Curriculum is to address the problems that currently face the youth. The program is intended to give youth sensible reasons to abstain from premarital sex so they can make informed decisions regarding their future by:

educating the schoolchildren and youth of Africa in God’s principles of character and moral development and sexual purity;

introducing them to Christ and His principles in order to develop a godly self-concept;

showing how He can empower them to withstand social and sexual pressures;

enabling them to live in sexual abstinence until marriage; and subsequently

implementing God’s principles of family life in order to pass the blessings to the next generation.

Curriculum objectives

The WHY WAIT? Life Skills Curriculum has been divided into an eight-year program (Years/Grades 5-12, for ages 10-18) for implementation in senior primary and secondary schools in Africa. A post-secondary course is also available for teaching first years in colleges and universities. The developers encourage those implementing the curriculum to grow in an understanding of their own life principles and to change where necessary, recognizing that they did not have the advantage of being taught such a curriculum earlier in their lives.

Year 5 of the curriculum focuses on the rules and responsibilities of living in harmony in the communities we belong to, whether home, village, town, or school.

Year 6 examines the role of the extended family in the lives of young people, particularly in the age of the AIDS pandemic.

Year 7 continues to explore the family, turning to a greater focus on parent-child relationships, considering the significance of obedience and the consequences of disobedience of rules set down within families.

Year 8 provides a transition to a greater focus on the joys and sorrows of being a teenager in the modern world, especially on the dangers of peer pressure to engage in premarital sex.

Year 9 focuses on the physical, sociocultural, and environmental factors that lead to premarital sex and the physical, sociocultural, and environmental reasons for delaying sexual involvement until committed to a monogamous, mutually faithful marriage relationship.

Year 10 turns to psychological, emotional, and relational factors influencing youth to become involved in premarital sexual relations.

Year 11 shows students the life principles by which people live and encourages them to choose a biblical life principle which will apply not only to their sexual behavior, but to all aspects of their life.

Year 12 is devoted to positive parenting, in the realization that many of the students will come from homes which gave them poor parenting models.

The post-secondary course reviews all the most important lessons for life covered in the eight-year primary and secondary program, recognizing that many students who reach college or university may not have had the opportunity to learn the life skills necessary to make significant decisions about relationships, before they make a mistake that may lead to devastating life-long consequences.

Overview of the Why Wait? Curriculum

The Why Wait? curriculum is used by trained teachers for teaching and discussion once a week for an hour. It is typically used during the religious knowledge time slot or as a supplement to the health education or population and family life curricula. Following are the topics covered in the WW? secondary curriculum:

Year 6
Lesson 1: Families are Special
Lesson 2: Family Hospitality
Lesson 3: Family Rights and Responsibilities
Lesson 4: Working with Feelings
Lesson 5: Is Family a Bone?
Lesson 6: Superstitions
Lesson 7: Preparations for Traveling
Lesson 8: Your Friend’s Child ...
Lesson 9: Where Do I Come From?
Lesson 10: Communicating Effectively in the Family
Lesson 11: A Friend in Need
Lesson 12: Stepping Stones
Lesson 13: Grooming
Lesson 14: The Oath
Lesson 15: We Realize Someone’s True Colors When We Have Walked with Them
Lesson 16: From Orphans and Slaves to Heirs
Lesson 17: Evil Follows the Perpetrator
Lesson 18: The Nuclear Family
Lesson 19: The Extended Family
Lesson 20: Homecoming
Lesson 21: When We Have Lied, Dawn Comes Fast
Lesson 22: What We Are Is as Important as What We Do
Lesson 23: Self-Discipline
Lesson 24: Handling Peer Pressure
Lesson 25: The Burden of Guilt
Lesson 26: The Work Ethic
Lesson 27: The Fruit of Deception
Lesson 28: Giving Forgiveness
Lesson 29: Letting Go
Lesson 30: The Story of Jesus for Children